To my most beloved photography community,
Some of the greatest photographers in the world are keepers of a grove. They spread seeds and provide nourishing water and sunlight in ways they never thought imaginable. I’ve always bowed my head and dropped to my knees for these folks even if I am critical of them. While I’ve never been or even tried to be that photographer, I ran a nursery for so many of you within the Phoblographer. As time went on, we’ve become a place for people who actually want to use their brains and think rather than sit back and endlessly receive content on YouTube and Social Media. Indeed, we are a thinking photographer’s hub. I am insanely proud of the work that the staff and I do — and even more proud of the fact that we’ve done so without playing dirty games the way that larger sites have. This, so far, may sound like I’m stepping down. But in reality, this is only the beginning.
To recap what many folks know, I’m legally blind/low-vision. My most recent discussion about it happened on the Candid Frame earlier this year, and I encourage you to go show Ibarionex the love that man truly deserves. He’s been an incredible part of the photography community and especially to photographers of color for years.
I’ve been legally blind for a very long time — in fact, it’s been over a decade. Your child could’ve gone to high school, graduated, took a year off, and finished a bachelor’s degree, and I still would’ve been bereft of perfect eyesight. My condition is called keratoconus. And only in the past few years has a procedure to help my eyesight become available with FDA approval.
I’m going to be going for two surgeries called corneal crosslinking. Believe it or not, they’re short surgeries. After I recover, my vision shouldn’t degrade any further. And later this year, I will be fitted with contact lenses that will allow me to see 20/20 again for the first time in over 13 years.
In December of this year, the Phoblographer turns 15. That means that when I started this online magazine, I wasn’t legally blind. Then I became so. And if all works well, my entire life is going to change in ways that I can’t even begin to fathom. Ultimately, this means that the Phoblographer will change too in ways that I am not even sure about yet. I still plan on being a huge support to the lesser-abled, POC, femme, LGBTQ, low-vision, etc. communities.
Yes, I want people to know that losing your eyesight isn’t the end of things.
So why am I letting you know? Well, we’re going to need help. Last year, I went through the site’s toughest financial period ever only to emerge victorious. For that, I give a major thanks to the people who donated and advertised with the site; Michelle, Sean, Shiori, and Ivonne at Panasonic Lumix; Nathan, Nathan, Annki, and Andrea at Leica; Josh and Ashley at VSCO; Kiran at Hobolite; Stacie and Jessica at Tamron; and several others who’ve advertised with the site to keep us afloat.
How You Can Help
The best ways that you can help us is to share our articles with colleagues and other photographers, become a member, buy our presets, buy some insurance, and help us to get even more page views. Page views and money mean that we can keep doing our jobs.
When my vision returns to the world of normalcy, I expect things to change. How? I’m not sure yet. Trust me, I’ll still be alright if my photos are slightly out of focus because I believe we don’t need to pixel-peep everything. But also don’t expect me to want to delve into video still.
We’re a site about promoting human photography first and foremost. And we always will be.
I’m writing this in August and publishing it in September. Expect other members of the site to slowly start to take more control over things in the future. But always remember that everything still has my waters and soil mixed into it so it may flourish.
Thanks, everyone.
Sincerely,
Chris Gampat
Founder/Editor-in-Chief